Question Authority
"Question Authority" is the ninth episode of the second season of . It originally aired on June 25, 2005. It begins the four-part finale of the Cadmus story arc that concludes the season. Plot The rogue New God Mantis is rampaging through Metropolis. He proves a handful for the combined powers of Superman and Captain Atom, but Superman manages to open a boom tube and send him hurtling back to Apokolips. No sooner has the dust settled than Lois Lane arrives and reminds Superman that they have a date. As Superman flies away with her, Captain Atom is surprised to be hailed by General Eiling, in full dress uniform. Eiling informs him that his commission in the U.S. Air Force has been reinstated, and it is time for Atom to make a choice. Over a picnic, Lois gently tells Superman that the Justice League's recent heavy-handed behavior is making some people nervous, and that people haven't forgotten the time when Superman was under Darkseid's control. With Huntress's help, The Question steals a series of high-security files from a government terminal, hoping that it will finally provide proof of a link between Lex Luthor and Project Cadmus. Inside Cadmus, Luthor is examined by Professor Hamilton and is shocked to be told that his Kryptonite-induced cancer has disappeared entirely, as if it was never there. Amanda Waller arrives and informs them of the theft. In his apartment, Question cracks the files and begins to review them. He happens upon footage of the Justice Lord Superman assassinating President Luthor in the Justice Lords' alternate dimension. , "A Better World" After days of poring over the data, he becomes unhinged, believing that the same thing is fated to happen in their world: Luthor will become President, Flash will be killed, and Superman will attack the government in retaliation – except that, according to Cadmus simulations, the resulting war between all the metahumans of the Justice League and humans will destroy the world. Question confronts Superman, who assures him that he would never do what the Justice Lord Superman did, even if Luthor does become President. Question is unconvinced, and decides that the only way to prevent Armageddon is to kill Luthor before he takes office. He goes to Luthor's office to do so, but Luthor swats him away with a display of inhuman strength that surprises both of them –and confesses that his entire presidential campaign is nothing but a bluff, “a small part of a much grander scheme”. Question is taken to Cadmus and tortured by Dr. Moon for details on the files he stole. After Question disappears, Huntress kidnaps Jimmy Olsen and uses his special watch to call Superman, alone. Telling Superman about the tape (which she assumes is a fake) they track Question's communicator to a garbage dump. Huntress fears the worst, but Superman points out that they dumped his comm, not his body. They conclude that Question has been taken by Cadmus. Superman initially refuses to help her, insisting that the League cannot act without legal grounds. But when Huntress points out that Cadmus is interrogating Question under the government's authority, Superman decides that they'll act "off the book". The pair smashes into Cadmus and Superman easily defeats their soldiers. As Huntress searches, Superman looks through a wall and sees Professor Hamilton, realizing his role in the conspiracy. He confronts Hamilton, who doesn't deny what he's done, insisting that the world needs protection from Superman and his kind. Superman leaves in anger. But after Superman leaves, Hamilton sags, as though exhausted, with a concerned look on his face. Together, he and Huntress break into the cell where Question is being tortured. As they are leaving, they are stopped by Captain Atom, who says that he is now taking orders from the government and his job is to stop them. Continuity * Both Lois Lane and Emil Hamilton refer to the events of , "Legacy". * Lois likewise refers to the embarrassing confrontation between Superman and Captain Marvel in , "Clash". * Question is still searching for a link between Luthor and Cadmus, after being tasked to do so by Batman in "The Doomsday Sanction." * Luthor's Kryptonite poisoning, first diagnosed in , "Injustice For All", is finally cured. * The footage which Question and Huntress watch is a re-animated version of the opening scene of , "A Better World". * Question refers to Superman attempting to lobotomize Doomsday with his heat vision, in "The Doomsday Sanction", as his Justice Lord counterpart did in , "A Better World". * Huntress uses the special signal watch that Superman gave to Jimmy Olsen in , "Superman's Pal". * Superman reminds Huntress that she was fired from the Justice League in the earlier episode "Double Date". * Dr. Moon tortures Question by showing him visions of the future he so fears; the vision of President Luthor killing Flash with a shotgun is mirrored in a later episode. It is plausible, though never confirmed, that this is what occurred in the alternate universe prior to the events of "A Better World". * Superman realizes that Hamilton was responsible for cloning Supergirl, as already revealed to the audience in "Fearful Symmetry". Background information Home video releases * * Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD) * Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Blu-ray only) Production notes * Question's interrogation scene was purported to be carried out by Dr. Hugo Strange, expert psychologist. According to Dwayne McDuffie, Strange's cameo in "The Doomsday Sanction" was a set up for this scene, but due to the Bat-embargo he could no longer be used and was replaced by Dr. Moon. * In "Critters" , Bruce Timm expressed some regret for not including Farmer Brown as a member of Cadmus, instead of Doctor Moon. It's unclear, however, whether he said that in jest, seeing as Farmer Brown had no expertise in psychology. * Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the video that the Huntress assumed to be fake was the alternate universe White House security tape given by the Justice Lord Batman to Superman, who passed it on to the League's universe's President.http://jl.toonzone.net/episode46/episode46.htm Trivia * This episode reveals that the DCAU version of Captain Atom is named Nathaniel Adams. He was named Allen Adam in the original Charlton Comics version, and Nathaniel Adam in the DC Comics version. * In DC Comics, General Eiling is the original antagonist of Captain Atom. First he blackmails the then-Captain Nathaniel Adam into participating in the military experiment that transforms him into living energy, then marries Adam's wife and raises her children as his own. * The Cadmus data files names contain at least three nods to the comics: ** "Zarathustra" may be a reference to the codename to the British government program that created Miracleman. ** "Multiverse" is a DC Comics continuity construct. ** "Flashpoint - 23" may refer the next episode, which is the 23rd episode of . *** The number 23 also has significance to the Illuminati group that Question mentions. * Superman and Captain Atom defeat Mantis in the "Plastino Street Station", an homage to Al Plastino, the Silver Age Superman comic artist. * The Question quotes the Law of Identity when talking to Luthor. * The Question claims that his distaste for Luthor as a human being is Brobdingnagian. This adjective refers to the fictional land of giants from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The adjective has come to describe anything of colossal size. * The Question mentions the Illuminati, a secret society subject of many conspiracy theories. Probably not merely by coincidence, some elements of the DCAU version of Cadmus bear a resemblance to the way the Illuminati is traditionally portrayed in fiction as an alliance between big business and a shadowy branch of the government. * Dr. Hamilton compares Superman's betrayal with that of Lucifer, who in the Christian tradition was the first and most loved among the angels, until he betrayed God and was cast out of heaven. * The "magic bullet" mentioned by Question refers to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, specifically to the single bullet theory which hypothesizes the existence of as another assassin besides Lee Harvey Oswald. * Question's theory about fluoride ties in with his "Got Flouride?" poster seen in "Fearful Symmetry" and "Double Date". Cast Uncredited appearances * Crimson Fox * Shining Knight * Steel * Dr. Moon * Jimmy Olsen * Flash (Justice Lord) * Lex Luthor (Justice Lords' universe) Quotes Footnotes Category:A to Z Category:Justice League Unlimited episodes